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Films

Inception

36 replies

squirrel42 · 20/07/2010 21:07

I've done a search but can't seem to find any threads about Inception - am I the only one who's seen it and reeeeeeeally wants to talk about the plot, the twists and turns and spoilers there-in?

Well darn it I'm just going to start on my own. Stop here if you haven't seen it yet!

I loved it; I won't claim it's perfection and I won't claim to have understood it on as many levels as you probably can, but it was a jolly good couple of hours of entertainment and various concepts and ideas have been swirling around in my brain ever since. I loved the visuals, I loved the layers of dreams within dreams, I loved the hypnic jerk concept of the "kick" waking yourself up, I loved Joseph Gordon-Levitt's graceful anti-gravity maneuvering and I always have time for Cillian Murphy's cheekbones. I also loved the inconclusive ending, although I hate Christopher Nolan for doing it at the same time. The man is really good at what he does and effortlessly makes my brain turn to mush.

Niggles are that Ellen Page was a bit of a "cabbage" in her position as the audience proxy being introduced to everything for the first time - I heard her described as the film's walking FAQ and that was a little heavyhanded, but to be fair there was a lot to explain in a short space of time so they could get to the action. I felt her character could have been fleshed out a little more to make her seem less like a conduit for explaination. And in a very shallow fashion I'm a bit annoyed that they bundled everyone up in very unflattering ski-suits for the last dream, when they'd all been in such yummy suits in the hotel. Don't cover up the assets unecessarily!

I really want to go and see it again...

OP posts:
squirrel42 · 21/07/2010 08:57

Bump - I can't believe no one else has seen it or just doesn't have anything to say!

OP posts:
lionheart · 22/07/2010 09:36

squirrel, I haven't seen it.

Do you have any view on the rating it is given? What age is it appropriate for, do you reckon?

squirrel42 · 22/07/2010 13:27

They do full-on assessments of films at kids in mind and have one for inception here but that would kind of give some plot happenings away. They give it 1/10 for sex or nudity, 7 for violence and gore and 4 for profanity.

I'd say that it's definitely got moments of drawn out suspense and the odd "jump", plus general things around suicide that I can't go into without giving plot twists away. There is some shooting but it's not really very gory - you see some blood on clothes for example, but not giant bullet holes in people. And there is a bit of pushing/shoving, some faked torture (just someone shouting and screaming from another room) at one point. As the 1/10 suggests there's really no sex or nudity and not a lot of swearing. Younger kids would probably have some trouble following the deeper layered themes (I certainly did now and then!) but it can be followed on the more basic levels too.

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squirrel42 · 22/07/2010 13:29

Thought I'd add as a comparison if you take the Dark Knight I'd say Inception was definitely less scary and less violent, if a bit more brain-mushing!

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VenusInfers · 22/07/2010 15:58

Hi Squirrel

I have seen this too and was just about to start my own thread when I saw yours.

I have to say that I thought that it was one of the most annoying films ever; because it was good when it should have been great. Totally agree that the layers of dream within dream were the best thing by far, but what happened to the dream-like feel? It almost totally disappeared after the show off scenes with DiCaprio and FAQ (snigger) - the scenes in Cillian's dreams were all very sub Bourne stuff.

Ooh the more I'm thinking about it the crosser I am. For I love complex follow-me-if-you-dare plots. Magnolia? Fab. Endless Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Brilliant. Memento? Peerless. Heck, I even have a lot of time for Back to the Future 2. But in this one Christopher Nolan told us to pay attention and, unless I've really missed something, did not reward that attention properly. I thought I'd feel like I'd puzzled something out at the end of the movie, but sadly no.

Why, for one, was the 'limbo' that everyone ended up in the same as the dream world that DiCaprio created with his misses? And don't get me started on the 'was it ALL a dream ending...'

BTW Squirrel, have you seen Shutter Island? Don't want to spoil it for you, as it's a great film, but there are some stunning parallels to Inception.

mayorquimby · 22/07/2010 17:21

Just home from it.

Brilliant cast, brilliant story and a brilliant movie from Christopher Nolan who at the moment is in the habit of making simply brilliant movies.

My only problem was that I saw the twists coming, or at least I think I saw them.
As in I knew that there'd be ambiguity at the end and I'm pretty sure that it was still a dream world as I think I spotted something.
Also the Limbo story bringing us back to the beginning of the movie was fairly obvious.

squirrel42 · 22/07/2010 17:48

VenusInfers - yeah I've seen Shutter Island and the parallels are a bit spooky if unintentional! I kept waiting for the flashback kids to stop digging and toddle towards a lake with Mal leading the way...

They threw in the Escher-like staircase in the hotel but admittedly that was about it for reality-bending; I hadn't really thought about it but I agree that side of things could have been used much more.

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VenusInfers · 22/07/2010 20:00

Yeah. The things they did do (exploding buildings, limbo city etc) were done so well that I kind of expected that once the big plot dream got started it would be similar. I suppose they thought that it would just get too confusing if they did that. Still a disappointment tho. Esp when you consider the clever interleaving of reality and dream in Endless Sunshine...

Re. Shutter Island SPOILER ALERT it seems really odd that DiCaprio's agent would let him do two so similar parts. Loner man with strange dreams and visions who exists in an alternate reality where he is haunted by his dead wife. The resonances were a bit off putting, even tho the films were clearly doing this for very different reasons. I think I prefer Shutter Island (with it's astonishingly insistent 'background' music) because the whole thing hangs together better. When you're at the end of the film and think back all those strange things make SENSE. Whereas Inception just leaves too much hanging in the air..

So, Squirrel, what do 'you' think the bookend limbo sections and the bit where he wakes up on the plane without knowing how he got there meant? Where does the dream start?

VenusInfers · 22/07/2010 20:02

That should have been you , not the slightly sarcastic looking 'you' btw

squirrel42 · 22/07/2010 22:18

I still don't really know what I think! As I was watching the run up to the ending I thought they had returned to reality, then when he span the top and it seemed to keep going I thought "oh noes, he's still in the dream" and assumed there would be another twist and he'd finally "escape". When it suddenly went black the whole cinema laughed/groaned and my immediate reaction was what the hell, aww now we'll never know, but I did think it was starting to wobble and so might have still been reality.

On reflection I think the message I got was that Cobb wasn't even looking back at the top once he'd seen the children, so he was happy where he was regardless and that's all that matters to him. I'd quite like it to have been reality but if the whole thing was in his brain then what the hell - he's chosen the life and seems satisfied, which is more than many get.

OP posts:
lionheart · 22/07/2010 23:04

Thanks, Squirrel.

vjg13 · 23/07/2010 21:18

I really enjoyed it. Thought the casting was good and it was very gripping.

VenusInfers · 23/07/2010 21:33

Squirrel Our whole cinema groaned too. I like your take on Cobb being so happy to see his kids and therefore no longer caring where he was, but the whole reason he wouldn't stay with his misses was that she wasn't real because he could never imagine her in her full complexity. So why is he now happy to have that same, unsatisfying, relationship with his longed-for children?
And I still don't quite get the roughly tacked on start and finish. They don't seem to follow the logic of the dream state, if that's what they are, but don't make sense as anything else either. Sigh...
Anyone know if Chris Nolan is on Mumsnet?

camaleon · 27/07/2010 13:26

Hey,
i watched this yesterday. As I have said in another post, to me this film was a fantastic metaphore about addiction. Everybody can interpret the addiction as they please... I have read somewhere that it was about 'pop-culture/post-modern addicion' to games and other things distracting us from reality.

I felt everything was about addiction in general, including the suicide, the wanting of carrying others with you. It is not clear if the person committing suicide is trying to be 'recovered' and taking someone else with her of if it is the other way round, i.e., she is killing herself and getting the most loved ones with her.

It is a lot about co-dependency. It is very clear from the youngest carachter who can see the risk, who is informed about the activity being illegal, but she cannot help but going along.

There are many other things: creating your own dream that becomes your worst nightmare. The idea of 'letting go' so used in recovery programmes. The dreams within the dreams, the crazyness of wanting to get deeper and deeper in the addictive behaviour. The kick not working, missing the kick, which to me represents that stage of addiction when you realise you cannot stop anymore when you want to.

The limbo stage, when yuo cannot distinguish anymore when you are high because to be be normal you need to be high. Or those who are in center to be 'waken up' instead of going to sleep...

Perhaps I am a bit paranoid, but this was the film to me, and I thought it was really well done.

Reminded me of a much older one about vampires, called 'Addiction' but in that case the messages were more obvious.

echt · 31/07/2010 17:13

Point taken about addiction, and Cobb does mention it.

I enjoyed the film, though quickly saw how things would turn out, so settled for the SFX.

Thought the snowfield sequence was just out of James Bond, unimaginative, but enabling an action sequence.

Also, like others, don't get how the final limbo for everyone looked like Cobb's.......or is it because the whole thing is his dream? Dunno.

BTW - did you all stay until the end of the credits?

frankie3 · 01/08/2010 10:40

I have just seen this and I loved it - though I didn't sleep that well last night - lots of dreams!

I agree with all that has been said about addiction, I also think it reminded me of that married couple recently in the news who were addicted to an internet game and brought up imaginary children while abandoning their real child at home.

I thought that Ellen Page was good, indeed all the cast were really great. What else has the British guy been in?

I agree that the limbo looked too much like a normal dream - I expected it to be frightening and more like a blank space. And the ending of the film was very dreamlike so who knows if that was still a dream? And how would the guy who was in limbo have known to make the phone call from the plane as he did not if it had all had the right outcome?

echt - what happened at the end of the credits?

poppyknot · 01/08/2010 15:23

Missed the end of the credits too!

It DH's birthday treat and we both really enjoyed it. He is a very good 'explainer' - a service I need a lot of when watching these films.

iwouldgoouttonight · 02/08/2010 13:48

What happened at the end of the credits - I missed that because I was desperate for the loo!

cocolepew · 02/08/2010 14:22

I really liked it, apart from the woman snoring behind me .

Leo was looking goood [shallow]

echt · 02/08/2010 20:24

Sorry, took some time to get back.

Right at the end of the credits, "Je ne regrette rien" fades in up again, followed by the roaring noise you get when the "kick" begins.

CoteDAzur · 03/08/2010 13:44

Very good movie but I was about sone parts that didn't make sense. For example, did that guy really have to stick them all in the lift and blow up the brakes?

(1) What use is a lift without brakes in zero gravity? It will not be dropping anywhere until gravity returns.

(2) Why not just leave them floating in the middle of the room? They would fall down to the floor when car hits water in previous dream level, therefore providing the "fall" AND perfectly synchronizing the two kicks.

CoteDAzur · 03/08/2010 14:28

What did everyone think about the ending - dream or reality?

frankie3 · 04/08/2010 15:09

I guess for everyone who stayed to the end of the credits the ending was just a dream!

CoteDAzur · 04/08/2010 19:49

What do you ink happened at the end of the credits? I watched it on YouTube because some claim they heard the totem fall but there was nothing of the sort.

CoteDAzur · 04/08/2010 19:49

What do you think